Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Eternal Piano Recital

Oh but it is that time of year again with recitals all over the place. Thursday, we had the girls' piano recital. Both girls had memorized their pieces (something I was never any good at); two solos and two duets each.

Maggie's duet partner this year was her buddy, Luke, which made for significantly more pleasing practice sessions as he was much less inclined to scold and hiss at her than her sister was last year. They looked pretty darn cute up there to boot.

They all did pretty well with almost no major derailment. At one point in Maggie and Luke's duet, he stopped playing, but Mags soldiered on and they were both nonplussed about the whole thing. I was thrilled there were no tears.

Our complaints of a late ending last year seemed to be, at least partially, heard. The playing and awards presentation was a mere two hours - a new record low. Maggie was additionally the proud recipient of the trophy for most practice time over the course of the year. (For the younger set anyway. One of the teens racked up 550+ hours. Surprisingly, he was really good.) Eion, who had no escape route seeing as Tim was working, was remarkably well behaved. Though that may have had to do with the dsi he was allowed to play. Look, I was just trying to survive.

We stayed briefly for the reception following. Enough time for a cupcake and to make them feel they hadn't been cheated out of the after-party. They only got to bed an hour and a half late; a welcome improvement over the previous year's 11pm arrival home.

I feel kind of bad every year as I am always a little on edge through the whole thing and don't enjoy it the way I should since it is a school night and we end up out so late. As expected, Maggie and Eion were both tired and irritable the next day but at least Morrigan didn't have a test the following morning like she did last year. We'll just keep hoping, and hinting, that a Sunday afternoon would be a lovely time for this event next Spring.